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Prince moves to block dodgy charity donors

THE HEAD of the Prince of Wales’s private office has ordered an investigation to weed out “dodgy” donors to Charles’s charities.

Sir Michael Peat acknowledged last week that more should be done to check the backgrounds of potential donors, who give millions of pounds each year to charities such as the Prince’s Trust.

Peat, who last week published results of an investigation into Charles’s household that found evidence of mismanagement at the highest level, is also demanding an end to excessively lavish entertaining of donors.

His decision further to investigate potential backers follows the revelation in The Sunday Times earlier this month that a Turkish billionaire accused of a massive fraud gave £400,000 to the Prince’s Foundation.

Cem Uzan, 42, is being sued in New York by the mobile phone manufacturers Nokia and Motorola, who accuse him and his family of swindling them out of $2.8 billion. Uzan has been